July 31. St. George, Grenada

We had a great time in Grand Ans D'Arlet and really enjoyed the most spectacular view. Although it rained every 20 or so minutes it still was a very pretty place. We also had the most incredible snorkel around the corner. The water was so clear we could see at least 60 feet and the whole underwater scene reminded us of a nursery with flower pots every where, as soon as you got to the flour pot it turned into a sponge. Sponges are an abundance here but we saw lots of other beautiful creatures as well. An eel, sea snake, sculpin, weird tube like worm about 12 inches long and see-through, cuttlefish, trumpet fish changing color according to background, a white albino sole and lots and lots of just perfect lobsters, although in traps. In my last report I mentioned a weird weather system showed up. Chris Parker told us that if it should turn into a storm that he would come up on the radio at 7 am and 7 pm on Sunday, which is usually his day off. He didn't come up in the morning, so we pulled anchor and left for Baquia, 90 miles further south. He did come up though in the evening and told us that there was a potential for the system to turn into a tropical depression and it would hit St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Martinique. Did we feel lucky we left and decided to continue as far as we could get, Grenada, 156 miles. We finally had a chance to sail, 15 to 20 knots of wind on the beam and 5 to 8 foot seas. It was like a dream come true, WE WERE SAILING!!! We sailed between 5.5 and 7 knots and had to slow the boat down for comfort. We took full advantage of the lee of all the islands which made the seas calmer, the wind a little different but better traveling, but we did have to turn the engine on to get us through the lee. We sailed pretty much the whole time between the islands and use the motor about 1/3 of the time in the lees. Every time we left an island we had an adverse current for about and 1 1/2 hrs. West of Baquia we had the worst of the currents for about one hour, but as soon as we got into the lee of the next island all the swell dropped to about 4 to 5 feet and less. In all we had from 1/2 knot to 1 knot of current with us most of the way. We had a wonderful trip and are glad we left. Glad we're here and feel a bit saver knowing to be further south and out of hurricanes harm, well almost, if it wasn't for the last two years.

July 28. Grand Ans D'Arlet

Heavy rain woke us up as a squall with up to 29 knots of wind blasted us. We had one squall after another and were not sure yet if we were able to leave. Sid managed to wave his white flag to the ferry driver and wouldn't you know from then on he came in three boat lengths from us instead of just a half one and a lot slower. The weather wasn't so good, but the window for Sunday stands still open. There is a weird system out there, which they can't explain, but at least we know that if it should turn into something, it's going to happen north of us. After at least 6 squalls we finally lifted anchor and sailed, I said SAILED the 5 miles to Grand Ans D'Arlet. Wow what a rare thing to actually pull the jib out and sail 5 knots with jib only, can't remember when we did that last time. We made it just on time to our new anchorage, the anchor set, Sid had enough time to get back into the cockpit and a heavy downpour of rain swept over us again. This anchorage is really beautiful with water as clear as in a swimming pool. Later in the afternoon we cleaned the bottom of the boat and also looked at the anchor how it was set and we saw the weirdest creatures, fish with wings, lots of them. They were hanging around the chain amongst dozens of baby sole. If the flying fish have their wings closed they somewhat resemble a huge fat grasshopper and change the appearance completely when opening the wings which are now surrounded by a glowing bleu color. As we cleaned the bottom of the boat I also noticed little tiny shrimp eating off the hull, they could have not been bigger than one millimeter. Here we are again in another beautiful tropical anchorage enjoying the view and waiting for the next weather window.

PS: found frozen blue crab in the store, already cleaned, 17 crab for under 10 bucks from Cuba! This is going to be a yummy dinner tonight.

July 27. Rum Tasting

OK, here it is the rum tasting result. The first day we played tourists in L'Ans Mitan, we hit a couple of restaurants had the best Pizza in a long time, the very thin crust you can only get in Italy and of course Sid ordered each time a different local rum. The first impression was not very good as the rum was probably the worst we've ever tasted. It's so strong you can instantly pickle your liver. The result was the same with each rum he tasted, they didn't even have a rum flavor, just pure alcohol. So when we rented a car to drive around the island we stopped at 3 distilleries, which was really interesting to see how rum is produced. We of course didn't taste the cheapo rum but went straight for the aged rums, which nobody seems to carry in the restaurant. We did end up finding 3 very good bottles of rum, each aged for 10 years, the oldest rum we could find anywhere and of course paid a price, but it was worth buying them. We even broke down and bought snifters, which probably will break the first time of use. We had a wonderful time driving around the island, which is 75 miles long and 30 miles wide. Rich in rivers and springs, the island is covered by contrasting vegetation and was know as "Madinina", the flowery island. The southern part is a large plain with close to sea-level hills, that mangrove swamp lines in the east and the west many coves, capes and bays. The beaches lined with white sand, coconut palm and turquoise blue sea and lots of islands. The road then took us along the eastern or windward side of the island, with tall mountains which gradually decline to the beaches all overgrown with banana plantations. The coast was more rugged and waves crashing onto the shore. At one view point we pulled out we witnessed rip currents heading out to sea, very interesting. Most of the windward side is surrounded by churning reefs. In the north are the highest peaks of Mont Pelee, Macouba hills, the Lacroix peak and the Carbet peaks. Here is the territory of the big, humid, luxuriant and virgin in places tropical forest, wherein rivers, waterfalls and cliffs are mixed. We drove up to the top of Mont Pelee to view the crater. We were just amazed when we drove up that lush mountain with no sign of any lava streams or volcanic rocks, nothing hinted to a volcano which exploded just 100 years ago, killing a whole village of 30 000 people. Since it is overgrown with a lush rain forest it builds its own weather and the top was totally fogged in, we couldn't even see a crater if there was one. Well, there is but is also overgrown with lush tropical vegetation. Driving down the steep Mont Pelee took us by the Depaz distillery, which is built right on the foot of the volcano and includes a most beautiful castle overlooking the Caribbean waters and the northern islands. Which by the way was re-built by the soul survivor of the Mount Pelee disaster, the only survivor of the Depaz family. We stopped in St. Pierre and had a wonderful Creole lunch. The sand on the northern beaches is mainly black as a result of the volcano. The Leeward side is very steep and not as soft looking as the Windward side. We had a great time exploring the island and planed was to leave the island for Baquia the following day. With a predicted 20 knots of wind and 7 to 8 foot seas, we decided it was not a good enough weather window for us and remained in the anchorage. Good thing too as the weather was worse and we would have had the ride from hell. Although we have the anchorage from hell at times. There is a ferry dock ashore and every 20 minutes one or two will drive by. Yellow buoys divide the ferry channel with the anchorage. We are anchored at least 100 yards away from the yellow buoy. I don't know what it is but they sure are picking on us, maybe because we are the only boat flying the American flag in the anchorage. There are two ferry drivers that every time they come in, they don't use the channel but instead drive right through the anchorage and about 1/2 boat length next to us leaving us a 4 foot wake, which will toss everything on the floor if it wasn't secured. One time the two came in at the same time and sandwiched us, which by the way was very dangerous, one on either side a boat lengths away with now the double wake for us and there is nothing we can do, other than give up and leave. Tried to do that but the fuel dock was closed on Tuesday, no fuel and no checking out, so we were stuck. We've dealt with the ferries for the many days now but yesterday for some reason every single ferry slowed down before coming in the channel and non ever came through the anchorage. We have no idea what happened we assume somebody complained. Today a different story again as they come blasting by. Sid made a white flag out of a rag and a pool and the next one blasting by he'll be standing on deck flying it, wonder if they get the hint. We wanted to leave today but weather is not allowing it yet, so hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to head the 4 miles around he corner to Grande Anse D'Arlet, where there are no ferries we hope. Another two waves have come by and one more is underway, hopefully right after this one we'll have a chance to head further south. Last night we had the most spectacular lightning show with cloud lightning, at times the lightning looked like it came out of the mountain peak like firework shooting up into the sky, really neat.

July 21. Anse Mitan, Martinique

We left the marina as planned and when we started motor sailing along the lee of St. Kitts instead of calm seas we encountered a swell against us making us do the Caribbean two step all over again, two forward one back. Knowing that the wind would die down later on the day and even change direction from 110 to 90 we went the 2 miles to Ballast Bay and anchored. We enjoyed lunch, awed at the beautiful scenery and Sid watched two Barracudas swim under the boat. One was really huge and then we heard this splash and saw the back of the big barracuda cutting through the water like a rocket and the little one chasing behind him. He would get back under the boat, but a few minutes later again would make a wild dash away from the boat with the little guy in hot pursuit. That's when we noticed again that his whole back was out of the water, he was not doing well and the little one knew that and saw dinner. We decided that this was not a good idea to go swimming at this time. It was quite interesting to watch the ordeal. After relaxing till the afternoon we noticed the seas had settled as per the prediction so pulled the anchor and continued our adventure south. This time motor sailing along the lee shore was calm but as soon as we came to the end of the island the water turned into a washing machine (they call it a katarac sea, it's current against swell and wind = nasty, nasty). This lasted about 2 miles and not just that I noticed some fishing buoys and when we checked on the chart on the depths we noticed that we were on a shelf. Since we didn't want to run over a trap again, we immediately changed direction due west, pulled all our sails out, turned the engine off and sailed a couple of miles and off the shelf into deep water where its normally too deep to place traps. From there it was smooth sailing for a long while. Wind was 12 to 15 Knots and swells 4 to occasional 5 feet, a pleasant motor sail. We past the island of Nevis which was definitely prettier than St. Kitts and a bit more tropical looking. The next island was Montserrat, where the Soufriere Hills Volcano is very, very active at this point. He first erupted in 1995, destroying the capital Plymouth. Two years ago scientists expected that the volcano would quiet down. However, the volcano just won't go away. Last May another major eruption showed that the mountain is still very alive and unsafe. There is both land and a maritime exclusion zone and extends 2 miles from shore around the southern half of the island. In times of bad eruptions and dome collapses the flow of hot ash has been seen to travel in a volcanic cloud at least a mile and half out to sea. The hot ash could burn wholes into sails making them look like Swiss cheese. The best to avoid the effect of the volcano is to sail around the east side of the island. By that time the wind and sea conditioned had worsened a bit and in order to sail around Montserrat due east would have been a long 8 to 10 hour pounding, Caribbean two step trip as we would have to sail into the weather. Too long of a trip to be miserable and decided to take the chance and sail around Montserrat on the western side. Our thought for taking this chance was, if it was our time to check out yet, might as well go out with a big glow, but if time was not yet here Montserrat will behave and he did, although he did let us know that he was there by the punched odor of sulfur and the gritty feel of dust and we were 7 miles west of the island. We were not alone, three other boats were out here taking the chance. There were several more islands (Guadaloupe, The Saintes and Dominica)we sailed by and every time just before we got into the lee of the island we could feel the Katarac effect again for a couple of miles. Sloppy but doable. All in all it was pretty comfy and the boat wanted to sail with 6 knots badly but every time she did that we had buckets of water spray over the boat, half way up the sails, into the cockpit and over the dodger and bimini and of course all over us, so we had to slow down and slow down again by a half knot and you wouldn't believe the difference in comfort by just a half knot of speed. Since we departed from Ballast Bay a bit later our estimated arrival time in St. Lucia would have been around 5 pm. Not just that the next tropical wave was underway and we did not want to get into it, so we decided to make it as far as Martinique. We arrived at the north end just around midnight and since St. Pierre is a very easy anchorage to arrive in the middle of the night we parked the boat there, got a deserved 3 hour sleep, alarm was set for 6.30 and after we indulged in Sid's super morning coffee we headed the rest to Port de France. Saint Pierre was worth the stop and is definitely on our plan next season when heading up into the Caribbean islands to explore, it was the most breathtaking view to see the French looking houses along the beach, with lush hills in the background and in the near distance the towering Mont Pelee Volcano, which erupted and destroyed the whole village including all inhabitants in 1902. Many ruins still remain. Post-disaster buildings have been built onto old structures, so many new buildings share at least one wall with the past. Just outside of the anchorage a school of juvenile dolphins surrounded Paradise. They were a happy bunch as they fully jumped out of the water, while some waved their tails, while others played tag with the bow. At one point 15 dolphins surfaced next to each other in front of the boat, looked almost like a ballet, it was beautiful.
In Chris Doyle's boating guide of the Wayward Islands he wrote that the customs office in Port the France closes at 12.30, he also wrote that the chandlery in town will check boats out and may be able to check them in in the near future. I jumped ship right away to catch the fairy across into town to check in before they close the office, but headed first to the chandlery. Indeed can we check in there now as the customs office moved some 10 miles out of town. Not just that boaters can check in and out at the Internet Cafe and in Pointe du Bount, where we are. It was easy, just had to fill out a form with our info and there was no fees attached either. Then of course I went exploring the city. I found a great supermarket right around the corner from the chandlery and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The store is filled with European goodies I haven't seen in years and the wine prices are the best I've ever seen anywhere. You can buy good French wines from E$ 2.80 and up. Rum is pretty cheep too and they had a better goat cheese variety than we have in Switzerland and sausages and salamis, just the best of the best. I will have such a great time to provision here. We also found out that there are a lot of rum distilleries on the island and since we're going to be stuck in yet another tropical wave, actually two, we're going to rent a car and go rum tasting, sound fun doesn't it.
On another note, we think that Tika is thinking about shooting us soon. It's not been easy on her at all with all the pounding into the weather ever since we left the Dominican Republic. One of the main problems for her is not being able to use her litter box in the bathroom. We found pee on the floor next to the box, then one time she peed on the bed. Along Vieques, I guess she had to go really bad, she walked right by us, hopped up on deck, placed herself in front of the dodger where she was in full view of us. We wondered why the heck she would go up there in this chop until she hunched down and rolled a couple of fresh turds down the icing glass. That gave us a clue how difficult it really was for her. From then on we had an extra litter box in the cockpit, which she started using too, with our help holding on to the pan. On our trip here, she stepped into the litter box and was balanced a bit oddly on the rim, we couldn't get to her on time and the box tipped over and interrupted her business. But only for just a couple of seconds as she threw us a dirty look and then pooped right in the middle of the companion way. We had to tell her too what a good kitty she was, poor little thing. Sid just told me to add that Manuela tried to catch each single turd as it came out. Tika might have been embarrassed but she sure had a smile on her face.
Oh by the way Welsh Rover arrived in St. Kitts and is weathering the next few tropical waves there.

July 18. Basseterre, Saint Kitts, Leeward Islands

We are definitely not marina people but we really enjoyed our stay at the Moorings and have to admit that we would stay at any Moorings Marina again. It's like checking into a hotel, actually easier, they didn't even want a credit card info when we checked in. There is 24 hour staff on hand and whenever we placed a bag of garbage on the dock, a minute later the staff took it. On the weekend the dock were swamped with people, some leaving, new ones coming and the working crew getting boats ready for the newcomers. We met some nice people and all squeezed everything out of us about cruising, of course we love to talk about our life. One group was 8 American Airline pilots, chartering a catamaran, the other 16 neighbors from Atlanta, GA chartering two cats (I would move into their neighborhood, they were like a big family). We were busy talking that's for sure and just had a blast.
When Chris told us that we had a two day weather window we jumped right on it, provisioned, checked out and couldn't head faster out of there. Unfortunately Welsh Rover decided it was not time yet to leave and we parted. We had such a great time with them over the last two months but the good side is, they are heading south too and so our paths will cross again, the latest in Venezuela. We sure will miss them. We left Sunday at 11 am, the wind was blowing 12 knots and increased to 15. We did have to tack our way across the Sir Francis Bay to Round Rock where we finally headed into the open sea. We were really anxious to see what awaited us out there. We had a fairly strong current out the cut but then it was easy motor sailing. The seas were 5 to 6 feet and the wind blew mostly 12 to 15 knots, a comfortable ride. Later on at night the wind increased a few times to 18 but that was about it. Our plan was to sail the 80 miles to St. Martin, but the wind and waves came out of that direction and we had such a good motor sail SE that we decided to head for Guadalupe instead. The trip was a piece of cake, although a pound cake that is, as the night crawled along it got a bit bumpier but still comfortable enough. Considering what we've endured the last months this was just a walk in the park. We actually had to slow down as we started to jump the waves and came crashing down a couple of times, slowing the boat down a half knot made the difference. And of course a crossing is not perfect unless something or two things break. We had two glitches, the Autopilot refused to work again, so we had to manually steer the boat the entire 126 miles to Basseterre, Saint Kitts. Then the wind gen. came loose from the base and started swinging around madly, Sid grabbed it and the solar panel bracket that also came loose woke me up out of a dead sleep, plus some &(%#@! words out of Sid. I grabbed the wheel as Sid was fighting the darn thing for 45 minutes before it was securely tied down again, while the seas were at it's worst. Luckily Sid caught it before it destroyed itself and the solar panels. Poor Sid was sore the next day and had know clue why, until I brought up the fact that he was wrestling a wind gen. during high seas. Due to that we decided to head for St. Kitts instead for repairs. Good thing too, because the two day window we had closed after a day. And wouldn't you know right after the gen. was tide down again, the sea got calmer again too. As daylight approached the water got a bit more churned up again but it still was very tolerable. As a matter of fact whenever the seas got churned up Sid would check on the depth finder to find some sea shelf that disturbed the surface. By sunrise we closed in on Isla Saba and were just flabbergasted by the humongous rock formation of an island. The huge island shoots out of the ocean with steep walls, a huge mountain in the deep blue water with no beaches anywhere, just a rugged coastline around the island. On the SW side is something like an anchorage but I bet the water stays deep until it hits the rocky shore, as all the boats were sitting on a mooring. Then there was this steep, steep road heading 3/4 up the mountain and all the way up there are villages to see. House were built way up the mountain and right next to the most horrifying cliffs, with probably the most spectacular view over the other islands. It's a very bizarre looking island, but pretty neat at the same time. Two islands further south was Saint Kitts, what a beautiful island to approach.
You have no idea how good we feel to finally be in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, from here on the weather will be easier to travel than what we had to deal with so far. The tropical wave that is underway now, has the potential to build into something stronger, which is good and bad, the good thing is, it will give us a bigger weather window to head further south. We were some 25 hours underway and of course as tired as we were we had to check in with the authorities first. Then it was relaxing time and that we did. Our plan to sail another 10 miles to a very pretty anchorage but Sid noticed the cap to our water tank on deck was open, he forgot to close it when we left. Result, our drinking water was all salty. Since he still had to fix the wind gen. and autopilot we decided to head into the marina here where it is calm to do the repairs. It's not the most modern marina, but water was included and we paid only 50 cents a foot. Sid fixed the gen. and the autopilot and we filled up with fresh water which is just as good as the water maker as a result of daily rain here in the mountains. This morning we also found out that the weather is going to cooperate and we can leave sooner than we thought so we checked out today and will leave early tomorrow and have plotted a 225 mile sail to Saint Lucia, hope the weather window will stay open for the 48 hours it takes to get there. If not we can stop at any other island before that. Keep your fingers crossed.
Probome checking in!!!!

July 13. Road Harbor, Tortola BVI

It shows again how small the world is, on our last day in Coral Bay a family showed up on the beach and a bit later swam out to us. We talked for a few minutes when we found out that they were out of San Diego. As we told them that we were out of Marina del Rey, she said that her father is a life guard in LA, since 50 years already. "No way, what's his name?" was Sid's reply and sure enough Sid knows her dad. Here is a photo of the family of Dick Ellerson swimming by our boat. Hope to hear from them when they get back from their vacation.

Can you all believe we moved a whole 12 miles further east because a tropical wave was headed our way (what's new), that was trying to become a low pressure system and since we were so close to a well protected marina we decided to take advantage of it and be safe. It should have been a very short and easy trip to Road Harbor as the Francis Passage we sailed across is surrounded by small islands and protected from the Atlantic swell, kind of being on a lake. But with the blow of 18 to 28 knots of wind we endured it turned this usually calm stretch into a churned up wild ride with white caps all around. In the middle of the stretch is a counter current and oh boy, did it get uncomfortable there. The bow dug into the waves, water sprayed over the dodger into the cockpit and the boat slowed down to 2.3 knots.
Customs in the BVI are very strict and you have to check in right away and only in Road Harbor if you have pets on board, which both of us have. You are not allowed to enter a marina before checking in either and have to anchor in a horrible anchorage, the only one here which is right in front of the customs building. The anchorage was full of mooring buoys all occupied with boats, surrounded by yellow cones stating no anchoring here leaving us barley any room. Right next to us was the busy ferry dock and we were right on the edge of the fairway and got the wake of each boat that came by. Check in was short and sweet, then we headed to the Mooring Marina to weather out another approaching wave. The weather has just been unbelievable, a lot of boats are still stuck between the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and here, just as we are. The positive side is, if it wasn't for the weather we would have not seen much of the Virgin Islands which are really too beautiful to miss. Almost forgot to mention, while in St. John no matter where we went people kept greeting Sid, some took photos of him, some gave him hugs, most wanted to shake his hand and we still want to know who they think he is. We'll see if the reaction is the same here.

July 10. Still stuck and playing the waiting game

We're still stuck and playing the waiting game. Even according to Chris Parker this has been a very unusual year for this kind of weather. He has never seen such strong trade winds to last as long as this year. They usually are also five days apart from each other, not this year as we get one every 3 days not giving a chance for the sea and wind to settle and leaving us stranded instead. Unless we want to stick our necks out into "Small Craft Warnings". So we played tourists once more and rented a car for three days. Three days of driving didn't even put a dent into the tank as the island is even smaller as St. Thomas and also a lot more pristine with breathtaking views. The driving is also more exciting as the roads literally turn into a roller coaster ride. The roads are very narrow, of course they seem a lot more narrow when driving on the left side and go over every steep hill there is. As the car slowly grinds it's way up, up, up and up and come to the top all you see is blue sky, until the car drives over the hump and goes down, down, down and believe me it gives you the willies when you look down that steep narrow road. Some are as steep as 60 degrees and wayyyyyy down the hill the road disappears, I mean gone as in no more road until you just get to the end and you realize it sharply turns to either left of right and up, up, up you go again. I you sit in the back seat all you see is asphalt on the downhill run as it is so steep that the roof of the car is blocking your view. It was quite exciting and made for a few screams from the girls in the back seat, more so the first day as we slowly got used to it by the third day. At every curve there is a sign saying "Stay Left", even though the curve turns right, but it will keep you alive driving in the left lane. Some occasional wild goats and donkeys help the excitement as they like sharing the road. It was quite an adventure and we really enjoyed the magnificent views of all four sides with all the little islands of the Virgin's in the background no matter where we looked, especially the view over the BVI. The beaches we followed around the island are just as you dream them to be. We also had the change to watch Italy win in the soccer finals.
Last night we had another strong wave blasting us with heavy winds and lots of rain and another one is already on it's way leaving us little time to move, not enough to head to the Leeward Islands yet. Tomorrow we'll sail to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands and from there to Virgin Gorda, where we hope to finally catch a ride south towards St. Martin and finally our destination Venezuela, before the tropical waves decide to turn for the worse.

July 7. Invisible husbands ................ found

As we are waiting for another two tropical waves to pass, the guys decided that we girls deserve to have lunch ashore and took us 2 miles across the bay to "Skinny Legs" in Coral Harbor, a favorite hang out. We're in the land of the 10 dollar burger but we all admitted it was one of the better ones we've eaten. After lunch came the shopping as there are 5 little tourist stores attached to the restaurant. So Stacey and Manuela went shopping, and after 5 minutes we came back to see the guys, but they were not at the table anymore, "oh well, we'll just go into the next store". A few minutes later, we returned to the restaurant, but no Sid, Toni or Sailor the dog. So off into another store. After this one, we checked again, but still no Sid, Toni or Sailor. So we walked down to the dinghy dock to see if they were there but again no Sid, Toni or Sailor. We were done shopping and so we decided to have a drink at the bar while waiting for the boys to return. We sat on two tall bar stools by the guard rail next to the steps that lead from the open patio down to the horse shoe pit and sat there for at least thirty minutes waiting for our husbands. Still no Sid, Toni, nor sailor. We came to the conclusion that the boys went to get gas for the dinghy and not wanting to order another drink, we decided to walk towards them. The question now was, which path to take, the one leading along the water or the road. Since the one along the water was not paved we figured they would have to come back via road, to be able to pull the cart with heavy gas jug. So we walked in the heat and humidity and were sure that we probably would miss them as thy walked the other path. Of course we asked everybody who passed us if they had seen two guys, a dog pulling a cart with a red gas jug. Nope, nobody had seen our boys. Neither did the kid working at the gas station. From there we spotted a little Mini Market and since we came this far we decided to get some groceries before turning back, this time on the small path, again hoping to run into the boys. Nope, still no boys. Back at the restaurant again, Stacey walked down to the dinghy dock, I went back into the restaurant and checked out every table twice, and even walked over to the bar and looked at every customer twice, but no Sid, Toni or Sailor. Stacey came back and we're wondering where they could have gone. We didn't want to drink another drink, so Stacey saw a video store across the street and headed over there. While she went browsing in the store I stood guard on the terrace which was overlooking the restaurant, all 5 little stores, the dinghy dock and half a mile of the road, but still no sign of Sid, Toni and Sailor. Where could they be? It's been almost 2 hours since we've been looking for them and they couldn't just disappear. By now our feet were smoking and we were soaked from the humidity. Once more we go into the restaurant and this time I told Stacey to help me look. No Sid, Toni or Sailor as we walked from table to table and bar, then we approached the stairs, where we sat earlier, the one leading to the horse shoe pit and I discovered a table hidden right under the porch and who was sitting there? Sid, Toni and Sailor and had been sitting there all this time. They never believed us that we were done shopping after 10 minutes and had been looking for them for the last two hours. What happened was as we were in the first store, they were told that they had to leave the table as dogs are not allowed in the restaurant and so they moved downstairs, not telling us. But they enjoyed the all too many rum punches they HAD to drink while we girls shopped for the last 2 hours. Oh,yeah, they even saw us go by (our third store) and never let us know they were there. Obviously the rum punches made them invisible, while we were forced to shop!!!

July 3. Back on St. John Island

Well.......!!! after getting together with Welsh Rover the decision with an only 24 hour weather window was to take a shot at St. Croix, with the thought of being 40 miles closer to our destination. Early the following morning we lifted anchor and headed out the calm anchorage and bay into swells of 4 to 6 feet, just what was predicted. A beautiful rainbow was showing in front of a squall to the west in the background of the beautiful island and the wind blew with about 15 knots. Our heading was 196 degrees and placed the wind and swells on our port side beam. We were excited and glad to have found a good weather window and got settled into the wave action. About two miles off shore, finally out of the lee of the island the true wind revealed with a full 20 knots. A nasty squall that snuck up on us confirmed the ugly conditions. The waves all of a sudden were 8 to 10 feet high and only 5 to 6 feet apart and made it impossible to steer the 196 degrees as they now slammed us on our side and as soon as we came back up the next wave would slam us, soaking us to the bones with gallons of water right into the cockpit. Manuela was on the helm while Sid was tending the sails, but no matter how he adjusted the sails Manuela had the hardest time steering the boat. Then a clank noise from the staysail, the cheek block broke. This was not fun and if it isn't fun why do it, so we called Welsh Rover who were struggling behind us that we were turning around that this was a no go. They agreed and we both sailed back into the very beautiful and protected anchorage we left earlier. Sid also found the cheek block of the mainsail broken. Later on we heard the local weather on VHF with small craft warning. So we are once more stuck and playing the waiting game, but we truly are in the most pristine anchorage. Sid took the girls into the Coral Harbor Village around the corner to load up on some produce. There was a really nicely stocked Gourmet Market, but with gourmet also comes the high price, wow. The waiting game has been a pain in the you know what, but we do enjoy our company with Welsh Rover very much, makes time go by much easier and they feel the same way. There is nothing better than good company and between Stacey's and Manuela's cooking the guys are quite happy. Last night they were over on Paradise but the night got cut short by a nasty gust of wind. Later on that night, Welsh Rover hunkered down inside their boat and Sid snoring away in the cockpit, Manuela sat on the bow, looking up into the stars and saw the most incredible shooting star exploding twice and leaving an enormous trail. The area lit up like in a lightning storm. Several more interesting shooting stars were observed but non as incredible as the exploding one. Early the following morning Stacey and Manuela went snorkeling. The water was the clearest it has been and they saw everything from sole, snails, rays, trumpet fish, colorful tropical fish, boxfish a huge puffer and barracuda, but the most exciting was beautiful turtles, it was a great start to a beautiful day. As we are sitting perfectly calm in our anchorage, the waves outside the bay are raging. It is deceptive from here that only the crashing waves on the rocks, 2 miles across the bay reveal how bad it really is.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

July 1. Immer noch in St. John

A strong tropical wave over the last couple of days has finally past and this morning we were anxiously waiting to listen to Chris Parker's weather prediction. And he confirmed our fear. It's a no go again as heavy and gusty winds are sweeping through our area, which is caused by a high pressure and low pressure system working against each other. Therefore the sea state has no chance to settle and knowing we have to plow right into the weather would be a very miserable trip. So the question is, do we want to get beat up across the Anegada Passage and Saba Banks, which is roughly a 24 hours trip, or do we just sit tight in our protected anchorage and wait out the next tropical wave. Tomorrow the weather should be OK for just one day, but not enough for us to do the crossing to St. Kitts, so we have two other options to sail to either Tortola, the British Virgin Islands, which is just around the corner or head to St. Croix which would give us a bad angle again to head towards the Leeward islands. Last night as we had pizza and movie night on Welsh Rover we were discussing the Thorny Passage and if we would do it again. We all simultaneously came to the conclusion that we would NEVER sail this stretch again, it's just too rough and unenjoyable, not to mention the wear and tear on boat and crew. We are meeting with Welsh Rover in an hour to make new war plans, lets see what we will come up with. To be continued........